The construction of Shahid Soleimani Petro-Refinery in Hormozgan Province will start by the end of spring with an investment of $10 billion, the director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.
“The facility will receive heavy and extra-heavy crude oil as feedstock. Refined products like gasoline constitute 70% of the products and 30% of its products will be petrochemicals, including various types of xylenes, polymers, butadiene and propylene. However, the refinery will not produce mazut,” Jalil Salari was also reported as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news service Shana.
“A consortium of petrochemical and refining holdings, as well as banks and funds, has been formed to finance the project. It will be built on 450 hectares in Bandar Abbas,” he added.
“The southern city has been chosen for having the necessary infrastructure. Two refineries are already operating there and there is no need to spend more money on infrastructure,” he said.
According to Salari, the petro-refinery is estimated to be completed in five years with a refining capacity of 300,000 barrels per day.
Petro-refineries integrate refining and petrochemical to produce both fuels and raw materials for petrochemical companies.
Such plants have boosted the profitability and development of petro-refineries in developed countries.
Khuzestan Refinery
According to Salari, another refinery will be built in Khuzestan Province with the participation of a foreign investor.
The construction of the Khuzestan Refinery, with a capacity of 180,000 barrel per day and an investment of $4.5 billion, is on the agenda of NIORDC, he added, without naminge the foreign investor.
“Khuzestan Refinery is to be built in an industrial zone, 7 km north of Abadan City. The environmental permit for the project has been obtained. The feed of the refinery will be supplied from the crude oil of Azadegan and West Karoun fields,” he added.
The construction of new refineries will help increase gasoline output and prevent fuel shortage in future.
The National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company has predicted gasoline consumption to exceed 130 million liters per day in the near future while the company’s current production level is 115 ml/d.
Despite the rise in gasoline output in the fiscal 2022-23, consumption has also increased and reached the production level.
The rising consumption is a cause for concern as output is lagging behind demand. Officials have warned that if the consumption is not controlled, the country may need to import gasoline again, while it has been self-sufficient in gasoline production in the past five years.
Currently, if the consumption surpasses output, NIOPDC will tap into the strategic gasoline reserves that hold 4 billion liters.
Close to 800,000 new low-quality cars are added to Iran’s transportation fleet annually, while old gas guzzlers are not sent to the junkyard. These are among the reasons contributing to the growth in gasoline consumption.
It has been suggested that the most feasible alternative to curb consumption is to accelerate the nationwide plan to convert 1.4 million gasoline-powered public transportation and commercial vehicles to compressed natural gas hybrids.
So far, 200,000 gas-guzzlers have been overhauled, helping cut gasoline use by almost 1.5 million liters per day.
If the project is fully implemented, it can help save over 12 million liters of gasoline per day, which is equal to the daily output of Tehran, Shiraz, Lavan, Tabriz and Kermanshah refineries.
